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Commentary

Accenture Interactive: Adland's Fastest-Growing Holding Company

Accenture Interactive had a busy week bulking up on its ecommerce capabilities.

First, it confirmed ongoing and exclusive talks to buy ecommerce specialist agency Altima,
headquartered in France, with offices in the U.S., Canada and China.

Later in the week, it announced a plan to develop a platform that will help clients build and curate contextual,
personalized experiences for customers that span the entire commerce offering -- from marketing, ecommerce and offline shopping to customer service and loyalty management.

That platform
will expand an existing alliance with SAP in the ecommerce sector.

No doubt about it -- consultants like Accenture, IBM, Deloitte and others are every bit as much as part of the Adland
community as the WPPs and Omnicoms of the world. Agency leaders like to dismiss the consultant’s growing marketing-services businesses as a so-what on calls with analysts.

But the
presence and influence of consultants on Adland-related businesses is big — and will only get bigger.

Accenture Interactive reported it had $4.4 billion in revenue last year, which
is about the size of a small Adland holding company. And its year-to-year growth was more than 50%. No wonder the 4As is considering extending membership to the consultant community. Why not?

At this point, they’re not “encroaching” on the ad biz. They are a big part of it.